Heat sinks and fans are the main cooling components of today's computer systems. Without such cooling components, processor lifetime would be severely limited due to overheating and performance of the computer system would also suffer. Over time, dust or other particulate contaminants can build up on the respective heat sinks and in the fans which can degrade the cooling system performance. Some thermal systems have been developed where the performance of the heat sinks and/or fans are monitored to determine if such degradation has occurred. These systems sometimes rely on complex air-flow models and heat models to detect whether or not the cooling system is operating effectively.